Retro Review – Rookie Year

The first real memories I have of playing organized baseball was in 1983. During that year, I played for the Twins and we were sponsored by Dairy Queen. The DQ was one of the biggest supporters of youth teams in my hometown and they were easily the best hamburger joint in the area. One of our coaches was Peggy Phelps, who was part of the family that owned (and still owns) our local DQ. The very best part of the whole gig was going to the DQ after the games and getting the ice cream sundae in the mini batting helmets. I think some places still try to do that today but nothing beats the original.

My rookie team is pictured here and most of these kids were in classes with me from the time this photo was taken until we graduated. We grew up in a small town where everyone knew everyone and our childhood friends have become lifelong friends. I graduated with Jason Lee, BJ Harris, Dwan Williams, Beau Clark, and Corey Shiver (my cuz). Johnny Saxon, Bubba McDonald, Jason Johnson, and Chuck Turner were a year behind me. The only one that moved that I know of was Michael Sangster and his dad was one of our coaches. Unfortunately, Michael passed away a few years ago at a young age and now has a scholarship named after him.

The crew of BJ, Jason, Corey, and yours truly ran together for about 15 years and we played every sport available in the yard, at school, and with the city leagues. I still call them friends to this day and this photo is probably one of about 100 we have together from our youth. I would love to go back through those someday and relive some of the forgotten glory days. But as for the photos that I own, this is the earliest one I have with all of us in it. We were all rookies so to speak and we were just getting our feet wet in the sport. It would turn out that there was quite a list of great rookies from 1983 in the professional sport but we’ll talk about those a little later.

When I write one of these pieces about a time period from my youth, I always go back and research the year a little to refresh myself on what was going on in the world. 1983 was quite a noteworthy year. There was good and bad and there were some things that came along that year that we didn’t know would be quite so iconic until they had a chance to play out in society. I was in the first grade so I really didn’t remember some of these things being around yet but it is a reminder to me that I have lived through some of the best of times when it comes to pop culture.

How about this for starters? 1983 was the year the Super Mario Brothers were introduced to the world. While Mario and Luigi would go on to be iconic throughout the world over the next 35 years, the video game industry was at the beginning of a crash that would last from 1983-1985. Atari was the first console I owned and its popularity, along with games like Pac Man and Space Invaders, caused a lot of copycats to jump in the market. I remember having the Tandy as well, with Downland and Bedlam. Coleco and Sears also had consoles they were releasing. The sale of home computers that would play games as well just overwhelmed the economy and the video game industry died in its early 1980’s incarnation. Thankfully, Nintendo saved all of us and brought about the worldwide fame of Mario and Luigi a couple of years after they were first introduced.

The first mobile phones were also introduced in 1983. As you can imagine, these were ridiculous looking telephones by today’s standards but they were the very beginning of what has taken over our lives in 2018. What would we do without our cell phones? We rarely even make calls on them anymore but we use them for internet reasons, email, text messages, weather reports, game scores, watching TV and movies, listening to music, and dozens of other things. They can even control the climate in our homes from 400 miles away or give us a live video feed of our living room when we are out of town. We have all of that innovation from 1983 while at the same time shrinking the size of the phone from a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia down to as small as a large keychain. I remember when Zack Morris was the only teen to have a cell phone in 1989 and now my 11 year old has one because we think it is necessary.

Here is one for you old school readers. Swatch released its first watch in 1983. Do you remember just how popular those watches were? I remember all of the different designs with the jelly wraps you could put on the face of them. I am no watch connoisseur but I will admit that I didn’t know these watches were still around until my wife and I took a cruise a couple of years ago and there was a Swatch Kiosk in Cozumel. These watches looked super nice too! They have come a long way from the crazy 80’s face designs that I remember. Side note – I can’t get that Ivan Lendl Swatch ad out of my head.

There were some Major League Baseball players released into the card world that year that are pretty memorable too. Three particular guys by the name of Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg and Wade Boggs were finding their place in collector binders at the same time me, BJ, and Jason were finding our place on the baseball diamond. There are a lot of great rookie classes from the 80’s but this one belongs near the top. The rookie class that included the Camilla Twins turned out ok but I am happy to share my rookie years with those guys!

To review this great rookie class, I picked up a box of 1983 Fleer. I think Topps is the best set from that year but the Fleer box can be found for about half the price of Topps. I’ll rip Topps one day but it will have to be in the offseason when sets like Spectra and Optic aren’t littered throughout my LCS, taking up all my attention and dollars. This was Fleer’s third release since obtaining rights to produce cards in 1981 and it shows how much they had improved since that maiden voyage. They would break through the glass ceiling in 1984 with that fresh new design but I think ’83 was a pretty good upgrade from ’82.

For 1983, they used a border that varies anywhere from a brownish to grayish color, depending on the light and the condition of the card. The fronts of the cards used mostly posed shots, with some exceptions like this classic Kent Tekulve, and the player name was on the bottom right while the team logo was on the bottom left. The backs of the cards were the standard offsetting shades of color with full stats. The new addition to 1983 was the second photo on the back that Fleer proudly advertised on the outside of the box. They also placed the player background information at the bottom of the card in the early 80’s with a “Did You Know” section if the career wasn’t too long.

I may be in the minority but 80’s Fleer is more nostalgic to me than any other set. It isn’t because I owned a ton of Fleer because we were heavy Donruss in my region. I only had a few Fleer cards but they always seemed to be big names. I enjoy ripping Fleer and this really tiny part of my collecting soul wishes they were still around. I know that they would be just like all the rest with their own attempt at Inception/Origins but I’m a collector that likes variety. Let’s see what this 35 year old box can produce!

Fleer was very clear on the box about their improvements for 1983. They also made sure the retailers knew that the two extra packs meant an extra .60 cents profit. In 1983, I’m sure that was decent retail profit.

This is really one of my favorite things about ’83 Fleer! These stickers are absolutely beautiful and scream 1980’s! This sort of retro look is why I like some of the new inserts that incorporate these color schemes. That Rangers logo is killer!!

There was a huge crop of “record book” pitchers on the mound in 1983. These are the names that we all remember as kids. The group is headlined by Nolan Ryan but guys like Rollie Fingers, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Goose Gossage, Gaylord Perry, and Vida Blue are true LEGENDS!

Here are 3 stud relievers. Eckersley was converting to the pen around this time but Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter were established closers.

There was a better selection of catchers than usual in this set. Benedict was the Bravos backstop but Ozzie Virgil would soon be there too. Gary Carter was arguably the best catcher of the 80’s. And if you’ve read many of my Retro Reviews, you know I love Pena in the Pirates uniform.

Here is another huge group of guys that some collectors have only “heard of”. Most collectors have some of those top two rows in their collection, including a nice second year shortstop named Cal Ripken Jr. How many young collectors knew Johnny Bench played 3B? And if only we had been able to see the future, we could have warned Bill Buckner about the ’86 Series and then warned Ron Gant about ’91!

I can’t help it but I was constantly in awe of some of the names I was pulling. I’ve opened ’83 product before but it’s easy to remember Ripken, Murphy, and Rickey. However, pulling a young Kirk Gibson, a younger Mookie Wilson, a studly Jim Rice, and the DH Don Baylor made me remember that the checklist was truly loaded!

A staple in Fleer during the 80’s was the “Superstar Special”. These commemorated certain events and league leaders from the previous season.

One of the features Fleer advertised on the box in ’83 was the “Exclusive Double Header” cards. These were two regular sized cards that made a jumbo card. I’d call this innovative for 1983.

Here is a group of players that wound up coaching or in the television booth.

Some of the rookies from 1983 are memorable players. I loved Willie McGee as a kid and Ron Kittle was a HUGE prospect. I watched all of these guys during the 80’s. Howard Johnson was probably the most valuable by the latter 80’s.

And here is what we came for. This Wade Boggs is one of the big rookies from the early 80’s. Chicken Man went on to have a Hall of Fame career and his rookies remain relatively valuable considering prices of the era. I will always remember him more with the Red Sox than his days with the Yankees and Rays. I know he went on to win Championships with NY but he will always be a Red Sock to me.

Ryne Sandberg broke into the league as a Third Baseman but would make his mark as a Second Baseman over his 16 year career. He hit a solid .285 with 282 home runs and 1,061 RBI. He also added 344 SB to his resume. His best numbers in a season included a .314 AVG in 1984, 40 HR in 1990, 100 RBI in 1990-1991, and 54 SB in 1985. He was the ROY in 1982, MVP in 1984, and a 10x All-Star! Full disclosure – I pulled Boggs and Gwynn but missed on Sandberg. I did have this in my collection though.Arguably the greatest hitter of the modern era, Tony Gwynn finished his career with a .338 average, leading the league 8 times over his 20 year career. He hit .289 in 1982 over a 54 game cup of coffee but would never again hit below .309 over the next 19 seasons. He was an All-Star 15 times!! It’s also worth mentioning that the Padres logo in the bottom left corner was awesome!

Baseball cards in 1983 we’re a work in progress. With Fleer and Donruss joining the fray in 1981, they were still very young in the hobby. 1983 Fleer was a tremendous improvement from 1981 but they hadn’t quite hit their peak either. The design is solid but the light Brown is not my favorite border color. The backs are a little bland too compared to other releases. But it really isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. The checklist makes up for any design flaws as 1983 was a tremendous year for rookies. Based on the combination of reasonable price, so-so design, and awesome checklist, I’ll give the set a “4” on the Dub-O-Meter. Design keeps it from being a 5 and Boggs, Gwynn, and Sandberg keep it from being a 3.

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?